SGPC requests Zardari to cancel controversial gurdwara land deal

Amritsar, oct. 8 (ANI): The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has requested Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to intervene and undo the illegal sale of land attached to Sikh shrines in Pakistan..

In a letter sent to Zardari, SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar drew his attention towards the sale of land near Defence Colony in Lahore. The letter was sent through the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.

He said that it was a travesty of justice that Sikh gurdwara land was being sold at throwaway prices by the Pakistan Evacuee Trust Property Board (PETPB).

It is pertitent to mention here that the PETPB recently sold nearly 850 kanals of land belonging to the gurdwara Deh, Mota Singh village and Smadh bhai Maan Singh for approximately six crore of rupees, whereas the actual cost of the land was much more.

Makkar said that according to a pact reached between the former Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan-Jawaharlal Nehru and Liaqat Ali Khan - no property of any religious places in Pakistan could be put up for sale.

Earlier, 35 acres of land belonging to the Gurdwara Bebe Nanki in Pakistan was to be sold, but the PETPB had to cancel the move after protests from the Sikh diaspora and intervention of the high court.

Sources informed that after the report of the sale of land belonging to Sikh shrines at throwaway prices was published, the Pakistan government has summoned a PETPB official to Islamabad to enquire about it. By Ravinder Singh Robin (ANI)